Pine Rest also is working with Mercy officials to assess outpatient mental health care services offered at Hackley Life Counseling, formerly known as Child & Family Services of Muskegon.

The arrangement has some Mercy employees fearing for their jobs.

Kim Maguire, Mercy's vice president for patient care services, said Pine Rest was hired to improve behavioral health services -- not to eliminate local jobs or shift programs to Grand Rapids.

"Our intent is to hang onto as many jobs as we can," Maguire said. "We want to enhance the services we have. My role is to make sure that our behavioral health program is the best it can be."

Pine Rest took over management of the inpatient behavioral health program on Sept. 1. Pine Rest replaced Horizon Healthcare, a Texas-based firm that managed the inpatient program for Hackley Hospital.

Maguire said the only change with regard to inpatient services was the switch to a different management company.

Mercy also signed a letter of intent with Pine Rest to "explore potential enhancements to the continuum of behavioral health services in Muskegon and along the lakeshore," according to an Aug. 28 letter Maguire sent to employees. The Chronicle obtained a copy of the letter.

"We have recognized the importance of this service line for our community and the need to enhance our current services," Maguire said in the memo.

Maguire said there are no plans to have Pine Rest take over Hackley Life Counseling.

"Hackley Life Counseling is doing a good job," Maguire said. "We don't want to transfer jobs to Grand Rapids."

Maguire said Pine Rest's existing Muskegon clinic is separate from Mercy Health Partners, even though it's located in the Mercy's Health Pavilion.

Hackley Life Counseling is Muskegon's oldest provider of behavioral health services. The counseling center opened in 1887 and has operated under several different names.

Sue Cook, director of Hackley Life Counseling, said she wasn't sure how Mercy's agreement with Pine Rest might affect the clinic on Terrace Street. "I really don't know any more than what was in (Maguire's) letter," Cook said.

Mercy Health Partners spokeswoman Kelly Kurburski said the arrangement with Pine Rest is an example of Mercy's wide-ranging effort to improve the quality of health care and reduce costs, where possible.